


Midnight Misdial

by schroedingersfox



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Humor, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Short One Shot, meet ugly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 01:18:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17132288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schroedingersfox/pseuds/schroedingersfox
Summary: Loki wakes from sleep in the dead of night, plagued by a dream both absurd and terrifying, and calls his best friend to tell him about it.Except it's also 3am, and he's misdialed, and the other end hasn't hung up yet.





	Midnight Misdial

“And _then_ it chased me out into the street, waving a knife, and that’s when I had had enough and woke myself up. It was just so… bizarre. They look like headless children; I’m never eating a rotisserie chicken again. You understand, right?” He paused, hearing silence. “Clint, are you awake?”

The other end yawned. “I’m not Clint, but I’m awake.”

“You’re not—oh my god.” Loki sat up. He glanced at the screen, the call at nine minutes and counting, and put the phone to his ear again. “Are you serious? Who is this?”

“This is Tony.”

“It’s three in the morning, why did you pick up? Is this 212-5914?”

Loki heard the beeps of a microwave, and then the soft hum of it turning on.

“I haven’t slept in days, figured it wasn’t an issue.” Tony yawned again. “And no, this is 5944.”

“Well. Shit.” Loki flopped back to the bed and stared up at the ceiling, running his fingers through his hair. “I guess I’m sorry?”

“It’s fine,” Tony said. He didn’t sound exasperated, at least. “I guess I’d want someone to listen to my murder meat nightmare, too, if I had fever dreams like that.”

“It’s not a fever dream,” Loki snapped back. “I’m not sick. …That I know of.”

“Yeah, that’s how they sneak up on you. First you’re feeling fine, then you’re falling asleep to reruns and flirting with the Golden Girls on a cooking show. Anyway, you made me hungry, so I hope you don’t mind if I heat up a chicken burrito while on the phone.”

“Are you—are you making fun of me?”

“What? No.” The microwave shut off with a long wail. “Hold on, I gotta set you down. I’ll just—there. You’re on speaker.”

Loki was at a near loss for words. “Why haven’t you hung up yet?”

“Do you want me to?”

“I didn’t say that.” Loki rolled to his side and tucked the spare pillow between his knees. He put his own phone on speaker and went to his contacts list, saving the new number as _Tony_ , vaguely registering the sounds of cabinets opening and cutlery being gathered on the other end. “I’m just curious. Do you always wait until the last minute to tell a wrong number they’re wrong?”

“I can’t remember the last time I answered to a wrong number, to be honest. But middle of the night? Could be interesting. Also, why did you _dial_ me?”

“Why did I do what?”

Tony huffed. “You obviously meant to call someone else, but I’m just wondering why you manually punched in a number in the dead of night if you wanted accuracy.”

It took Loki a moment to realize what Tony was asking. “Habit, I suppose.” His friendship with Clint predated touch screens. He smoothed out the pillowcase under his hand. “Not every phone used to save numbers for you.”

“I guess that’s fair, mystery caller.”

And he still hadn’t given his name.

“Right, sorry. I’m Loki.”

“No worries. Well then, Loki. If you’re out of nightmares to talk about, I should eat my burrito, and you probably have a sleep schedule to return to.”

“As good a time as any,” Loki agreed. He put the phone to his ear once more. Tony’s voice was pleasant, and warm, if he were to admit to it. “Hey, before I go—”

“Yeah?”

“Would it be weird to text you again later? About normal things this time, I promise. But you really did me a favor, listening to me like this,” Loki said, beginning to smile.

Tony laughed. “Sure, go for it. You seem like an interesting guy.”

“Interesting, as in strange?”

“It’s a compliment either way. Later, Loki.”

“Good night, Tony.”

Loki ended the call, letting his eyes get reacquainted with the darkness of the room. He thought again of the last dream before he woke up, to gauge how distant it now felt, or if falling asleep would put him right back into the middle of it; but instead focused on Tony’s voice, imagining a generic placeholder of a man, walking around his kitchen on his phone in the middle of the night. And soon Loki drifted off, dreamless until morning.

He woke to a new text, a chicken and knife emoji, with the words, “You are avenged.”

Loki laughed at seeing it. Maybe Tony, an apparently chatty insomniac, would be awake for the next weird dream.

　

**Author's Note:**

> From prompt #75 on this [meet-ugly list](https://www.pillowfort.io/posts/274308). They're all so good.
> 
> As always, I'm over here on [tumblr](http://foxachu.tumblr.com/) and [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/foxachu), and you can [send me prompts here!](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/schroedingersfox_personal/profile)


End file.
